INTEGRATED PAYROLL AND PERSONNEL INFORMATION SYSTEM (IPPIS) AND CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA PUBLIC SERVICE

Abstract

Corruption has been a menace experienced in the Nigerian Public Service for decades. This syndrome has served as an avenue for some unscrupulous public servants to siphoned government resources illegally across all MDAs of the Federal Government. The government losses billions of naira on its recurrent expenditure annually, as a result of money being diverted through difference means like payments of salaries and allowances to non-exiting employees, falsification of records, among others, Thus the recurrent expenditure of government in wage bill has been increasing annually. Government has made several efforts to address the situation to no avail. With the introduction of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, the ugly trend is expected to reduce substantially, if not eliminated completely. This paper therefore assesses the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System as part of the nation’s financial reform system as a means of reducing corruption in the Nigeria public service. The researcher adopts both primary and secondary method of data collection. Survey research design was adopted and questionnaires were distributed to assess the opinion for staff of the OAGF. Findings from the study revealed that, implementation of IPPIS has reduced the cost of recurrent expenditure in public service. This has also led to increase in government saving. As a result of the challenges facing the implementation of IPPIS the study recommends that, Government should ensure that whenever an employee resigns his/her appointment, or is terminated, or dismissed, they must ensure that their records are properly updated. Payroll system should not be solely handled by one employee. For instance, the employee running the system should be different from the one approving the payroll.